Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Chair and committee members, thank you for inviting me to speak this morning.
Agriculture and water have a critical relationship. Water, food security and national security are inextricably linked. Agriculture, the driver of food security, is limited by water quality and quantity. While Canadians often consider water to be an abundant natural resource, around the world there are pressures, including increasing demand and climate change, that are turning water into a scarce resource and reinforcing how precarious agriculture's relationship with water can be.
That increasingly precarious relationship is part of the reason that CAPI launched an initiative on agri-food water earlier this year. This work was funded in part by the RBC's tech for nature fund and was led by our distinguished fellow, Nicolas Mesly.
Before I dive into our recommendations, I'd like to provide some context.
First, Canadian agriculture compares pretty well to other major food producers when it comes to water. Canadian beef has a water footprint smaller than the world average and is 70% of the footprint of Brazilian beef. Canadian beef also reduced its water intensity by 20% between 1981 and 2011.
When it comes to wheat, we have a smaller footprint than the global average, with the lowest footprint measured in a 2010 study.
Food processing made up 7% of all manufacturing water intake in Canada, and improvements in efficiency helped lead to falling water use between 2013 and 2017.
Increasingly, players in agriculture and food value chains are setting and working towards water use efficiency targets. These figures do not capture how volatile agriculture's relationship with water has become. Struggling to cope with too much or not enough water is something that unites farmers from coast to coast. Our recently released report included a series of recommendations built around the creation of a national agri-food water action plan. We did not call for a strategy, as it seems like we are drowning in strategies these days; what we need is action.
The action plan must bring together different levels of government with farmers, indigenous communities, civil society and the agricultural value chain to proactively plan for and deliver the two outcomes we need: one that conserves this vital resource, and one that leverages it to boost sustainable food production.
Federal, provincial and territorial agriculture ministers should take ownership of agri-food water. Our report recommends they commit to develop the action plan by convening an expert panel, releasing a state of agri-food water report and then releasing the full action plan in July 2025.
Our report also recommends immediate action while the action plan is being developed. Immediate actions include developing a coordinated model for standardized data collecting and reporting; going further to use watersheds as the basis for research, innovation and knowledge mobilization; and investing in a mission-driven research call to respond to the grand challenge of conserving and leveraging water as a strategic asset.
Finally, I'd like to touch on the role of the Canada water agency, which came up throughout the outreach we undertook for the report.
There were ongoing questions about what role the agency would play in how agriculture and food would fit into its mandate. There is significant potential for the water agency to facilitate and convene progress on this important issue. A common refrain was that the agency should be a convener and an enabler, not a regulator. Given the needs and the potential of agriculture, the industry should embrace agriculture as a partner.
Water is critical for agriculture. Too much or too little has the potential to cause significant harm to food production, but managed and leveraged strategically, it can give Canada a significant competitive advantage in an increasingly hot, thirsty and hungry world.
I look forward to taking your questions.